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Sunday, 5 October 2014

"Paralyzed: Frozen in place and unable to move or act, such
as by the hold person spell. A paralyzed character has effective Dexterity and
Strength scores of 0 and is helpless, but can take purely mental actions. A
winged creature flying in the air at the time that it becomes paralyzed cannot
flap its wings and falls. A paralyzed swimmer can’t swim and may drown. A
creature can move through a space occupied by a paralyzed creature—ally or not.
Each square occupied by a paralyzed creature, however, counts as 2 squares." Player's Handbook, page 311.

Yes . . . and no.

One of the games I'm currently running on RPoL is "The
Lost City of Barakus." My Players are in the sewers and a Carrion Crawler
damn near caused a TPK. Three of the party members were paralyzed. I played it
according to the "Rules" and found it . . . bogus.

You see the "Rule" above and the portion that I
highlighted. So, here's the question:

Since when did the heart and lungs cease to be muscles?

How long can you live when your heart stops beating and your
lungs stop pumping oxygen through your body? Or, to make it simpler, how long
before you pass out? The "Rules as Written" do not account, nor
allow, for either scenario. As we all know, when your heart and lungs cease to
function, both outcomes are inevitable.

Curare is known to paralyze skeletal muscles, but only in
low quantities. Too much and it stops the diaphragm and heart too. The Carrion
Crawler attacks with eight tentacles. Getting an "over-dose" of
Carrion Crawler venom is quite easy . . . it just needs to hit you multiple
times.

I don’t think I'm going to do the R.A.W. with this one
anymore. In future, I think some Characters are going to pass out and some are
going to die. Paralysis is far more
deadly than the books allow for. Of course, I will raise the CR for the Carrion Crawler by "1" for that same reason.

Saturday, 4 October 2014

I'm presently running the module
"Barrow of the Forgotten King" in one of my RPoL games. My Players
have just been introduced to the Tomb Spider – the hard way.

The group's leading Cleric – a priest
of Pelor – was bitten by the Tomb Spider. The group finally won the battle, but
the priest had been bitten twice and failed one of his Fortitude Saves and so
he was poisoned. The group's Cleric of Kord was also bitten, but only once and
he made his one Fortitude Save.

The Cleric of Pelor had suffered
some decent damage from the two bites, having lost twenty-two (22) hit points out of twenty-seven (27).
Once the fight was finished, he chose to cast Cure Moderate Wounds upon himself,
thus inflicting himself with another thirteen (13) points of damage, falling to minus eight (-8) hit
points.

Of course, everyone started
screaming at the Cleric of Kord to do something – no one having rolled a
Knowledge check sufficient to know anything significant about Tomb Spiders –
and the Cleric of Kord immediately performed a Heal check and poured not one,
but two potions of Cure Light Wounds down the fallen Pelorian's throat.